ALPHA-FETOPROTEIN. AFP was first recognized as a fetal-specific globulin in 1956. It is synthesized in the yolk sac, gastrointestinal tract and liver of the fetus. Fetal plasma levels peak at 10 to 13 weeks' gestation and decline progressively until term, 7 while maternal levels peak in the third trimester.2 Laboratory measurements of AFP levels are reported as multiples of the median (MOM).etal plasma levels peak at 10 to 13 weeks' gestation and decline progressively until term, 7 while maternal levels peak in the third trimester. 2 Laboratory measurements of AFP levels are reported as multiples of the median (MOM).
Minority population growing in the United States, census estimates show. Minorities now make up about 35% of the country's population, and about 57% of the population in California. Meanwhile, the white population continues to decline.
The minority population is expected to rise to 56 percent of the total population in 2060, compared with 38 percent last year. When that happens, no group will have a majority share of the total and the United States will become a 'plurality' [nation] of racial and ethnic groups, the U.S. Census states.The minority-majority trend reflected among 5-year-olds is the beginning of that shift. More. They may not know it, but for kids under the age of 5, the day the United States became a minority-majority nation has already arrived. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2014 there were more than 20 million children under 5 years old living in the U.S., and 50.2 percent of them were minorities.